Carl Linnaeus is a botanist who in the 18th century devised a system for classifying living things that is still used today. (Wikimedia Commons)

“Genome sequencing technology has progressed immensely in recent years and it now allows us to distinguish between any bacteria, plant, or animal at a very low cost,” said Vinatzer, who is with Virginia Tech’s Fralin Life Science Institute. “The limitation of the Linnaeus system is the absence of a method to name the sequenced organisms with precision.”

Rather than completely change the current naming convention of biological classification, Vinatzer sees his system more as a way to add more specific defining data to the classification of every organism within its already named species.

Since the naming system would depend on an organism’s specific genetic code, he says it would allow for a much quicker and more universal way of identifying new life forms.

The system begins with the sampling and sequencing of an organism’s DNA.

The sequenced DNA is then used to produce unique code that is specific to that individual organism, but is also based on its similarity to other like organisms that have already been sequenced.

Scientist Boris Vinatzer at work in his lab ( Virginia Tech)

Unlike the current method of biological classification where the names of organisms may change and vary over time, Vinatzer says the code system would make names permanent and standardized.

He also says that naming life forms based on his proposed code system would be faster than today’s long and detailed process that requires analyzing one organism’s physical characteristics compared to another’s.

Back in 2009, Vinatzer and a colleague had success with using genome sequencing to trace a pathogen that was devastating kiwifruit crops around the world back to China.

One Response to “Scientist Proposes New DNA-based Naming System for All Living Organisms”

For this article to be worthwhile to laymen, it should have included examples of what the new naming system would be. I appreciate the fact that there are so many links to further information, but really? You couldn’t have included some examples?